COURTNEY AVOIDS TESTING TIME

A Superior Court judge rules that there are not enough grounds to force Kurt Cobain's widow to undergo an examination...

COURTNEY LOVE will not have to undergo psychiatric tests in her fight against remaining Nirvana members in the battle for control of the band’s huge legacy.

A Superior Court judge in King County, Seattle ruled on Wednesday (April 24) that Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic did not prove there were enough grounds to force Love, the widow of late Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, to undergo lengthy psychiatric tests. Judge Robert Alsdorf added that such an examination would only serve to “contribute a circus-like atmosphere to the trial”.

The increasingly bitter battle between the sides over control of Nirvana has been going for some time. Last June, Love sued the pair to stop the release of a four- =album Nirvana box set of rare and unreleased material. One of the songs in the set is the much vaunted ‘You Know You’re Right’.

In December, Grohl and Novoselic counter-sued. In a swinging attack on Love, they claimed her decision to put a block on the album was because “faced with a waning recording and acting career… Love [was] using her claims to further her own career goals, not to protect Cobain’s legacy as she claims”.

The pair said Love was acting in breach of an agreement drawn up by the three as Nirvana LLC, a limited liability company formed in 1997 “to continue to nourish the assets of the Nirvana legacy”. They demanded damages from Love for blocking the release and also want her thrown out of Nirvana LCC because “in her professional dealings, Love is irrational, mercurial, self-centred, unmanageable, inconsistent and unpredictable”. They also labelled her “incompetent” and a “prima donna”.

What looks like being one of the most eagerly anticipated trials in rock music history is due to go to court in Seattle this September.